NHL players, coaches and general managers on the hot seat

The Flyers fired their general manager, assistant general manager and an assistant coach all before they moved on from the head coach. That is a little different than most teams, but Dave Hakstol seems almost certain to be the next one to go as the Flyers' struggles continue, because the new general manager will surely want to hire his own head coach. 

When you have the best player in the NHL and a true generational talent just starting to enter the prime of his career you need to at least make the playoffs. In two of Connor McDavid's first three seasons in the NHL, the Oilers have failed to do that and are by no means a guarantee to get there this season. A lot of that lack of success is due to some of the damaging roster moves made by the front office, from trading Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson, to trading Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome (then trading Ryan Strome for Ryan Spooner), to trading two first-round draft picks (one of which was Mathew Barzal) for just a few games of Griffin Reinhart, to the free agent contracts to Milan Lucic and Kris Russell. Peter Chiarelli was the general manager for all of those moves. This is his team. He has already fired the head coach, and there are not many more core players who can realistically be traded.

The Chicago Blackhawks fired one of the most successful head coaches in NHL history when the team's struggles were not his fault. This team's championship window has pretty much slammed shut, and the general manager is probably most responsible for the current situation the Blackhawks are in. Stan Bowman has done a lot of good things in Chicago, but he has also made some curious and questionable moves over the past couple of years that have hurt the short-term and long-term outlook of the team. 

This team was supposed to be better than this. After a terrible start to the 2017-18 season, the Panthers were one of the hottest teams in the second half and nearly made the playoffs. After adding Mike Hoffman over the summer — who has been outstanding offensively — the playoffs should have been an expectation. Instead, the Panthers have stumbled out of the gate for a second consecutive season and are in danger of having their playoff chances disappear by the start of the new calendar year. 

If we are being honest, the current state of the Ottawa Senators is not Boucher's fault. This organization's problems start at the top, way above the head coach and even above the general manager. But we also have to be honest and look at the fact that the Senators are on track to finish near the bottom of the NHL standings for the second year in a row, and Boucher has a track record throughout his career of having early success with his new team in Year 1 and then never reaching that level again. It happened in Tampa Bay, it happened when he coached in Switzerland, and it is happening in Ottawa. Even rebuilding teams change coaches eventually. 

The Kings made a significant investment in Ilya Kovalchuk to bring him back over from Russia to boost what was one of the worst offensive teams in the league. It has not worked. The first year of the contract has been so tough for the two sides that interim coach Willie Desjardins has resorted to playing him on the fourth line and giving him less than 10 minutes of ice time per game. Not what anyone had in mind when this contract was signed. 

The Blackhawks traded Artemi Panarin before the 2017-18 season to reacquire Brandon Saad, a key part of their most recent Stanley Cup team. All Panarin has done with the Columbus Blue Jackets is continue to be one of the best offensive players in the league. All Saad had done is see his offensive production crater in his return to Chicago. If anything, this transaction pretty much sums up what has happened with the Blackhawks over the past few years: questionable roster decisions and not being able to let go of past glory. Saad has just 49 points in 106 games (as of Nov. 30) in his return to Chicago and has at times been skating on the team's fourth line. 

One of the biggest problems for the struggling St. Louis Blues this season has been the play of their two goalies, Jake Allen and Chad Johnson. Allen was supposed to take over the No. 1 duties after Carter Hutton went to Buffalo in free agency, but he has not yet taken full control of the position. He is only in Year 2 of a four-year contract, but if his play does not turn around, the Blues may be forced to look outside the organization for a fix in net. 

His job is probably not in serious jeopardy (he is, after all, a really good and successful NHL coach), but a coaching change happening in San Jose should probably at least be discussed. After acquiring Erik Karlsson and re-signing Evander Kane, the Sharks were expected to be one of the best teams in the NHL and a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, if for no other reason than they now have three of the top defensemen in the league on their roster. So far, though, the results have been mostly mediocre, even in a weak division. These are usually the teams that you have to watch for when it comes to potential coaching changes — the ones with high expectations that is seemingly underachieving. Again, it probably won't happen, but it would not be totally unheard of either. 

If the head coach is on the hot seat (and with the Florida Panthers he might be) then the person that built the team should also be sitting on a seat that is getting warmer. Dale Tallon has made some good moves with the Panthers (the Mike Hoffman trade has worked; Evgeni Dadonov's return to the NHL has been great), but he's also been in charge of a team that has completely fallen out of the gate two years in a row while still taking the PR hit from the expansion draft saga that saw it lose Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith when it did not need to. Tallon has a positive reputation around the NHL, so his job is probably fairly secure for now. But if the Panthers miss the playoffs yet again, that might start to change. 

The Kevin Shattenkirk experience in New York has not yet gone as planned. After an injury-plagued debut season in 2017-18, things have not really been much better so far in Year 2. He has just one goal and seven assists through the end of November and has averaged only 18 minutes of ice time per game. That is not what the Rangers had in mind when they gave him a four-year contract worth $6.65 million per season. 

Tuukka Rask has been greatly underappreciated during his career in Boston, but his play has started to slip a bit over the past couple of years. That recent trend, combined with the great start for Jaroslav Halak, has no doubt created a bit of a goalie controversy in Boston. I still think at the end of the day if Boston is going to be a Stanley Cup team it is going to be with Rask in net, as I doubt Halak can maintain this pace. But for now Boston may have to go with the hot hand as long as possible. 

The Calgary Flames acquired Mike Smith and his contract before the 2017-18 season in an effort to solve their recent goaltending woes. He was just OK in his first year with the team, but he has seen his play completely fall off the map this season — so much so that David Rittich has started to take playing time away from him. Rittich's performance has been the biggest factor in the Flames' bounceback season, and as long as he keeps playing well it should be his net. 

The Ducks' record is decent enough, and in a weak division that might be sufficient to get them in the playoffs. But the team itself has a ton of flaws that are being masked by two outstanding goalies: John Gibson and Ryan Miller. This team is falling into the same path as every other Randy Carlyle coached team did over the past decade — give up a ton of shots; don't generate anywhere near enough; hope your goalie stops enough shots to let you scratch out a 2-1 or 1-0 win. Eventually the goalies cannot do it anymore, and the house of cards topples. 

The Edmonton Oilers are paying Lucic $6 million per year for another four seasons after this one. That contract contains a no-movement clause and is pretty much buyout-proof given how much of it is made up of bonuses. Through the end of November, he had five points in 25 games after recording just 34 in 82 games a year ago. It is not the big contracts to Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins that are hurting the Oilers' long-term salary cap outlook. It is contracts like this one. 

His career got off to a historic start, as he backstopped the Pittsburgh Penguins to two Stanley Cups when he was still considered a rookie. Things have not gone as well in the two years since. After a down year in 2017-18, Murray has struggled even more so far this season and is once again dealing with a series of injuries that are keeping him out of the lineup. As a result, Casey DeSmith is starting to take some starts away from him even when Murray is healthy. He is still probably the goalie the Penguins are going to need if they are to win again, but right now he is not where they need him to be. 

As far as hot seats go, this one is probably fairly cool. But here is the reality for the St. Louis Blues: They are on their third head coach in the past three years, and the team on the ice is getting worse. There is only really one other place management looks to make a change if that sort of trend continues. 

This is a different sort of hot seat. Wilson is a useful player, he is having a great start to the season, and the Washington Capitals like him enough to have given him a massive contract extension over the summer. He is in no danger of losing his role or his spot on the team. The "hot seat" here is that if he does not clean up the way he plays, he could be looking at a massive suspension that takes him out of the lineup for...a long time. He was given a 20-game suspension for a preseason hit on St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist. That suspension, after appeals, was later reduced. But given that it was his fourth suspension in the past calendar year, and that it went into double-digit games, his next incident could put him into Raffi Torres territory. This is not a hot seat with his team. This is a hot seat with the league. 

Nino Niederreiter has been one of the most underrated players in the NHL for a few years now, but he is having a really tough start to the season for the Minnesota Wild. In only the second year of a five-year, $26.25 million contract, he scored just three goals (with 10 assists) in his first 25 games. He is better than that, and the fact he is stuck with a 6.8 shooting percentage (far below his career average) would indicate he has been crushed by bad shooting luck. History says that will reverse at some point. But if the Wild are ever going to be anything more than a team that makes the playoffs then bows out in the first or second round, they are going to need more from one of their top players. 

The Devils obviously had high hopes for Pavel Zacha when they made him the No. 6 overall pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. But so far that potential has been mostly unrealized. He is still urning only 22 years old this season, but the Devils have not yet seen him take a big step forward in his development. After being a 25-point player the past two seasons, he had just four points (all goals) through his first 18 games this season.